Time
by Loony
Summary: Reeve is brooding after "The Case of Denzel". Yuffie tries to cheer him up. Reefie. One-Shot.


Some random piece of fanfiction about Reeve. Might turn out as Reefie (I'm still figuring out how to turn it that way while writing... the plot is rather vague). I'm placing commas wherever I like to place them, you'll get used to it.

Happy Birthday to Leo (whose birthday is hopefully today unless I mixed it up oO).

Update: Story is written, Yuffie does appear (there's no romance or anything) but it's rather actionless. And as Fala-li's story is already online, I didn't mix the date

Taking place after the Case of Denzel (Compilation), I'm not exactly ignoring facts but perhaps stretching some rather widely.

And I don't own anything. It's not mine and never will be...

**Time**

Reeve had just left Johnny's Heaven, deeply lost in thoughts. Denzel's story contained a great deal of information. Not so much information valuable for the WRO, but valuable for him, Reeve.

He'd often wondered about his mother's fate – of course, he had had no illusions of her having miraculously survived but he'd tried to imagine her last days.

How she would have waited for him to come home, to admit she'd been right from the start about Shinra and to move away from that cold place.

Years ago, when he had told her they'd move to Midgar, the city built after his own plans, she'd clearly shown her disapproval. "Midgar might be the most well-planned and best-organised city in the whole world but did you ever think how people could live there, Reeve? It's all metal and concrete, a meant-to-be-symbol of the repression of nature, but you and Shinra went too far. It's not only repression, it's destruction. There isn't one natural thing around and we need nature to live, Reeve. Moving there is anything else but an improvement."

"You could see me more often", he had tried to convince her.

"Which is the only reason why I'll go with you. But you know as well as I do, that it's a hollow argument. Shinra will steal away your time as usual and I can be happy if I happen to see you once a month."

"We're gonna share a house – you **will** see me every day, mom."

She still hadn't believed him - she'd known him for too long.

In the beginning, he **had** been there, living in the house, helping her after work, trying to make their "garden" more than just a sad place of barren ground.

Nevertheless, time had proved her right. Shinra took his time, new problems spreading everywhere. The last time he'd seen her was before the plate of sector seven had fallen down. Afterwards he'd just slept in his office if he found time to sleep. They talked on the phone from time to time but as Meteor was drawing near he couldn't even afford phone calls.

It was a relief to know she hadn't died all alone and that someone had taken the effort of burying her, even though it didn't take away his guilt – it should have been him that held her hand and him that buried her.

.His mother wasn't the only one in Denzel's story he'd recognized. The other one was a friend who had been reduced to an acquaintance due to Reeve's permanent lack of time. They'd grown up in the same village and done nearly everything together but later on there'd only been time for a hasty greeting at work.

He hadn't even known Eber had a son.

-°-

From one second to the other, the room temperature had fallen below zero [°Celsius, it simply went very cold, ;). His suddenly chattering teeth brought Reeve back to reality although it felt rather unreal to him.

Having his bureau covered in snow wasn't exactly an everyday experience. Not to mention the two ice-cold hands, that were just trying to massage his shoulders but instead of relaxing causing him to jump out of his chair only to come face to face with the blue goddess of ice and snow.

Shiva gave a shrug and looked meaningful towards the door before disappearing into nowhere, leaving Reeve still shivering.

The door opened and a cheerful Ninja entered juggling one single red ball of materia.

"Hi Reeve. Not brooding anymore, are ya?"

Reeve eyed her suspiciously.

"It couldn't possibly be that I owe the pleasure of this chilly visit just now to you, Yuffie?"

She grinned. "You have been looking depressed all day since you're back from Midgar. I thought a beautiful woman caring for you might just be the thing you needed. And I was right, wasn't I? You **did** stop brooding."

"Yes, and I started shivering madly instead," he added sourly.

"If you didn't spend your time inside all day, you might not be looking like a vibrating machine a whole five minutes after the temperature got normal again. Does your body even know the meaning of the word „change of season?" Yuffie didn't wait for his reply. "And you were very rude to Shiva, shaking her off like that. Are you even able to imagine how much of my brilliant persuasive power I had to use on her? She's a goddess and it's a damn honor to be kneaded by her!"

"She was cold!" Reeve answered, wondering how it came that it was **him** in the defensive.

"What did you expect from an Ice Queen?" Yuffie shook her head. "I certainly won't be able to summon her for weeks."

"A great loss", Reeve said dryly, finally having stopped shivering.

"Indeed! You should feel guilty and give me a payment rise", stated Yuffie trying to sound sternly.

Reeve narrowed his eyes.

"A payment rise? What exactly do you need that for?"

"I don't need it, I **deserve** it. Or are you going to deny my irreplaceable value to the WRO?"

Yuffie's attempt to change the subject failed miserably.

"There's always a reason when you're asking for a payment rise. What did you destroy this time?" Reeve didn't bother to answer her question.

"I didn't destroy anything!", she exclaimed.

"Yuffie?"

"Ah! Don't use that superior 'I am the president and I know almost everything and don't even try to fool me because I can read you like the openest book with a character height designed for almost-blind people and lies will be punished heavily'- tone." Yuffie shielded her ears.

"?!?"

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you. Did you see the new car this toffee-nosed blondie of Shinra has? He was driving around in it, like he was the king of world. And he dared to ask me whether he should pick me up. Me! The White Rose of Wutai! Riding in a car with this... this NO ONE who just happens to drive the most magnificent car in this world. Forget the fact that it was terribly raining, we were having the same way and he might just have tried to be polite it was an evil scheme to disgrace me! I decided to play along and accept the offer only to scratch his car accidentally with my Shuriken when I got off. He hasn't realized the scratches yet because I managed to distract him from the sound but he will find out for sure. So you see, I do need a payment rise."

"How about first trying to apologize to Rufus?"

"I am surely not going to say sorry to HIM."

"Well,** I** am surely not giving you a payment rise, Yuffie."

Yuffie stormed furiously out of the office, mumbling loudly enough to make him understand perfectly "and that's what I get for cheering you up, absolutely nothing. Thank you, Reeve!"

Smiling slightly he watched her leave and thought that he would never again abandon people close to him because of his work. And he would take their say more serious. Unless it was Yuffie babbling nonsense.

---

Not exactly what one would expect as a birthday-fic but I had almost no inspiration, sorry.

If you like Reeve/Yuffie check out the Viva la Reefie- Forum!


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